UNICEF says Pacific children should get first call on resources in recession

UNICEF is calling on Pacific governments not to cut back on resources for children as the global financial crisis hits their economies.

UNICEF Pacific's chief of policy, Dr Will Parks says their monitoring is yet to pick up an impact on children from the crisis.

But he says Pacific children will be particularly vulnerable as the economic situation deteriorates.

"Particularly when you have got populations that are living in fairly remote areas where health services and education services are difficult to deliver in the best of times. And when you see economies go down in terms of growth you tend to see governments unable to deliver the same quality and the same frequency of services."

Dr Parks says he is particularly concerned about the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa and Kiribati which already had problems for children before the financial crisis hit.